Rakuten moves to a new Cadence for web marketing

Rakuten Inc. is merging and reorganizing the services it provides to online marketers to make it easier for clients to understand the impact of the components of their digital advertising campaigns.

The Japanese online marketplace and services provider said today that it is grouping its various digital marketing offerings, which have grown in recent years through acquisition to include display, mobile, search, affiliate, retargeting, lead generation and product feeds, under the Rakuten Marketing division. It says it has integrated those services and that marketers can now analyze how the parts work together through a product it calls Cadence. “By fully integrating our services, analytical insights, tools and e-commerce expertise, marketers save time so they can more effectively determine the strategy and actions that will yield the strongest results,” says Yaz Iida, CEO of Rakuten Marketing.

The first change e-retailers might notice is that LinkShare is now part of Rakuten Marketing. Rakuten Inc. bought LinkShare in 2005 for $425 million and since then has operated the online affiliate network as Rakuten LinkShare. Rakuten Linkshare is the second most-popular affiliate marketing provider to e-retailers ranked in the Top 500 Guide, with 109 using it. The Rakuten LinkShare division subsequently bought MediaForge, which provides personalized online display advertising services, in 2012.

The change in the organizational structure brings these services under the Rakuten Marketing banner. Iida, the CEO of Rakuten Marketing, previously was CEO of Rakuten LinkShare. Rakuten Marketing has also hired Jessica Joines as chief marketing officer.